Then an instructor rides over, attaches the kite, throws you a board, and it’s time to “learn”. As always happens, I would frequently give the kite too much power and launch myself out of my board into the water, sometimes smacking the water face first. When you fell, you could just put your kite at 12:00, walk over to your board, and you were up and riding again. One of my most frequent mistakes was that when I finally found my board again, I would focus more on the board than the kite. “Control your kite first, then get your board,” blared in my ear over and over again.